“The following year, the heroes of the day were children. David was asked to paint Joseph Bara, the drummer who chose to die rather than shout ‘Vive le roi!’, and the young Provençal Agricol Viala. Of these two projects, one unfinished...

“Four fully painted heads stand out against the enormous expanse of white ground: the abbé Grégoire, the author of tracts in defence [defense] of Jews and Blacks; Mirabeau, the celebrated orator; Barnave, a jurist from Grenoble; and...